With the new Club Championship season already under way, we thought best to update you with the details! The Championships are there for EVERYONE to take part in. So make it your challenge to complete the criteria, you will be motivated to get out there and race, and see how you progress from last year! How does it work? There are 23 championship races each for men and women, spread throughout the year, starting with the Brampton to Carlisle 10 Miler in November 08 and finishing with the Great Scottish Run 10K/HM in September 09. Points are awarded for each race you complete, based on your official finish time and recognised scoring tables. The faster you run the more points you earn. Each race is classified as Short, Medium or Long. To fulfil the Championship qualifying criteria, you must complete at least 8 races in total…comprising 2 short, 2 long and 2 medium PLUS any other 2 from the list. At least one of the long races MUST be a half marathon. This might mean that you have to run a new distance or stretch yourself to complete the criteria – why not use the Championship as an incentive to achieve a new goal this year? Please submit your race times on the message board following each Championship race. The points total from your 8 qualifying best-scoring (fastest) race times will be ranked against your club-mates, with updates as the year progresses. Awards EVERYONE who completes the Championship criteria will be awarded a special Club Championship memento! Prizes will be awarded to the overall Club Champions i.e. the highest scoring male and female from either senior or vet category (35+ for women and 40+ for men as of 1st January 2009). The winner of each category takes home the annual Club trophy. The first 3 senior men and women overall PLUS the first male and female vets in each age category will win prizes as shown below. The details The full details are available here. A printed copy of this information will be available for all club members. In the meantime, best of luck, and get racing! Thanks, Nick and Carla 🙂
News
Craig Ross submitted this race report: On a warm and uncharacteristically sunny day, four Bella teams participated in the West District relay champs, this year held at the Royal Academy, instead of the beachy Magnum Centre. Despite torrential rain in the days leading up to the event, the course was relatively dry underfoot, which suited many of us unaccustomed to the dark and mysterious arts of off-road running. Some say that it’s not a real cross-country unless it is chucking it with rain, and you end up covered in mud, but I’ll take a dry track any day thanks. The men’s A team was lead out by novice stand-in captain Craig Ross, who muscled and cornered econmoically around the course to have the team well placed after the first leg. Marcos SanzGomez then took over and finished stronlgy before tucking into a meal of home-made pasta in a trademark plastic container. Jim O’Hara in his debut XC ignored all advice and took off like a rocket, and worked hard in the final stages before handing onto Gordon Durnan, up until this time a Bella race virgin. The A team finished in a respectable 20th place in strong field. For the B team, Euan Black started well before handing onto a hungover Dougie MacGregor, and then onto Norman Boyle who despite fancy new bold spikes had his efforts impaired by a bad cold. The team was anchored by Chris Doak who had a strong run, to bring the B team home in 44th. For the ladies’ team, Louise Ross finshed looking remarkably fresh before handing onto Emma Simpson, who had been out of XC for 16 years. Iona Robertson finished typically strongly, and clawed back several places to bring the team back in a commendable 10th. For the ladies’ vets team, Karen Clarkson (who had been roped in after a few drinks the night before at the Awards night) started things off, before passing onto the consistent Julia Harris, and finally Maddie Smillie brought the team home in 17th, after some time spent running the wrong way. All told, a great day out, and notable for the number of athletes who made their XC debuts.
In what was one of the biggest turn outs from Bella at the George Cummings Relay Races, four men’s teams and three women’s teams from Bella RR helped to make up the 48 men’s teams of 4 and 27 women’s teams of 3 in a 2.7 mile race in dreich conditions. New women’s Captain Carla got of to a winning start as the women’s vet team team won 1st prize. Full results at the Kilbarchan AAC website (PDF), and individual club results available on the forum. Photos here (facebook, courtesy of Greig) and here (Ian), and course map here. Thanks to Ian for the write-up.
Huge congratulations from the club to member Gavin, who completed the UK Ironman. Gavin wrote a superb summary of his experience: First of all, thanks for all the support over the last few months. I managed to complete my first triathlon in 13:53:29. I took 1:32:59 to cover the 2.4 mile swim; 7:22:30 for the 112 mile bike and 4:32:19 for the marathon, with the other few minutes in transition changing and sorting myself out! The swim start was delayed unitl 6:30 due to the overcast and dark conditions, visability above water was very low and underwater you could see about 6 inches. So the mass start of 1500 swimmers all thrashing about and jockeying for position means that you get punched, kicked, pushed and prodded a fair bit for the first mile or so. I had planned to take it easy on the swim and expected to come out the water at the back of the crowd. Safely through the swim it was onto the bike for 3 laps of a undulating and windy course. The feed stations every 12 miles never came quick enough, there were 3 big hills on each loop, and a fun fast downhill section reaching speed of upto 48mph!!. After 112 miles of physical and mental highs and lows it was a quick descent back to the transition area. After another changes of clothes and liberal application of vaseline I was on the run course. This was a very hilly figure of 8 loop that you ran three times. The first mile was a surprisingly easy 9 min/mile which set the pace for the first loop. On the second loop, things where getting tough, so I took full advantage of the aid stations, positioned every 1.5-2 miles. Which had Gatorade, power gels, pretzels, water, bananas and flat coke, I stuffed myself with everything except the coke and walked through them. By the 3rd and last lap my speed was getting seriously slow and I figured that unless I puled my finger out I would be over the 14 hour mark. So now I took onboard the flat coke and my last 4 miles was done in under 32 minutes (fast for me!). So running along the final 100m in my ancient Bella vest in the dark towards the finishing chute was a proud moment.
We’re today launching a brand new website for the club. We hope you like it, and find the revamp refreshing, and the new setup easier and more informative. Please feel free to feedback to Linda, Scott and Richard about anything – typos, suggestions or ideas for new content. Some of the highlights include: New look and feel. Nice and shiny, we hope you’ll agree. Template based system, so much easier to make changes and add new sections. News page for announcements, big club results, training schedules. Note you can subscribe using your RSS reader (or click here), and we’ll have an e-mail subscription soon too. Photo gallery, powered by flickr. If you’re a flickr user, just join the ‘bellarr‘ group and submit photos to it and they’ll appear (in a few hours) on the Gallery page. Forum integration. The latest posts to the forum are summarised on the News page. Fully up to date club records so you know what targets to aim for 🙂 Online back issues of The Bella Blether, so you can complete your collection if you missed any. Pages can be bookmarked. No more frames. Woo!
The summer edition of the bella blether is out now. Available to pick up at a great running club near you now, or click here to view it online! Past issues are available on the newsletter page.
4 Bellas braved the horrendous head wind yesterday in the Quiraing 10k in Skye, myself, Scott, Emma and Andy. Scott was 2nd overall with a pb of 33.33, Andy was 3rd with a pb of 35.21, Emma won the ladies challenge in 39.45 and I was 3rd with another pb of 45.26. It was a great day out, a very friendly race, £1.50 for all the cakes you can eat and the added entertainment of a belly dancer…..just don’t ask!!! Scott and I have had a deal on for the last 4 years that we could only drink the bottle of champagne he got for his club marathon record when we both got a pb in the same race……..at last!!!!
Well done to everyone to ran in the Bella 5k this year!! Prize winners and results below, or click here for the full 2008 results. A huge thanks from me (Linda) to everyone who participated today, whether it be running or helping out. It was a huge success yet again and i’m looking forward to seeing everyone back in 2009!!!! 1st Male – Paul Sorrie, Shettleston Harriers, 15.28 2nd Male – Matt Williamson, Bellahouston Road Runners, 16.16 3rd Male – Sean Fontana, Victoria Park City of Glasgow, 16.26 1st Female – Michelle Hetherington, Helensburgh, 18.52 2nd Female – Emma Birnie, Bellahouston Road Runners, 19.15 3rd Female – Donna Finlayson, Victoria Park City of Glasgow, 19.29 1st Male 40 – Alastair Douglas, Victoria Park city of Glasgow, 16.50 1st Male 50 – Graham Crawford, Springburn Harriers, 16.52 1st Male 60 – Tony Hall, unattached, 23.10 1st Male 70 – David Murchie, Eastleigh RC, 23.40 1st Female 35 – Sarah Dowling, Bellahouston Road Runners, 19.56 1st Female 45 – Pam McKay, Broomhill, 19.58 1st Female 55 – Janie Hall, JogScotland, 26.35 1st Female 65 – Sallie Lloyd-Jones, JogScotland, 36.37 1st Male Team – Bellahouston Road Runners: 2nd Matt Williamson, 5th Scott Kennedy, 7th Colin McGill 1st Female Team – Bellahouston Road Runners: 2nd Emma Birnie, 4th Amanda Wilson, 6th Sarah Dowling Also a huge well done to Emma Birnie and Andy Birnie (no fix honest!!!!) for winning places into the Great Scottish Run. And Colin McGill for his place in the Edinburgh Marathon or Team relay…….get training guys!! Enjoy the race? Why not complete the Runner’s World feedback form (link)?
The Club’s 2008 Annual General Meeting is on 10th September at 8pm, at Pollokshields Burgh Hall (by Maxwell Park). Nibbles and drinks from 7.45pm. Nomination form for committee positions is available on the club noticeboard. To stand for committee you need to have been a member for at least a year.
Bella 5k 17th August Get your entries in now for this year’s Bella 5k. We reached our maximum number of 300 entrants last year so get your entries in now!! 2008 Entry Form 2007 Results